Ministry

ARTICLES ABOUT MINISTRY BY DATE - PAGE 5

KIEV (Reuters) - Three journalists detained by pro-Russian forces in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, now under the control of the Russian military, were released on Tuesday, Ukrainian police sources said. The three women journalists were detained on the peninsula by members of Russian Unity, a political party which favors the union of Crimea with Russia, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov had earlier said on his Facebook page. The Ukrainian police sources said interior ministry officials had been in contact with the journalists' driver and they were now safe and in a Ukrainian district outside Crimea.

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's defense ministry on Tuesday said that no Italian military vessels were near to where a Libyan military spokesman earlier said Italian ships had helped Libya's navy secure a fleeing oil tanker, a spokeswoman said. "There were no Italian military vessels in the area," a ministry spokeswoman told Reuters. A tanker that loaded oil at a rebel-held port in the east of the country escaped the Libyan navy earlier in the day, leading to the ouster of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan.

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - At least 42 illegal African migrants drowned in the Arabian Sea off the southern coast of Yemen late on Sunday, the defense ministry said on its website. The ministry's September 26 website quoted a local official in Shabwa province as saying the migrants drowned off the coastal town of Bir Ali. A naval patrol managed to rescue 30 other migrants, the source said, and were taking them to a refugee camp in the town of Mayfaa. African migrants often use unseaworthy boats to try to reach Yemen, seen as a gateway to wealthier parts of the Middle East and the West.

VIENNA, March 8 (Reuters) - An Austrian reported to have been aboard the Malaysia Airlines plane missing off the Vietnamese coast is safe at home and his passport was stolen, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Vienna said on Saturday. "Our embassy got the information that there was an Austrian on board. That was the passenger list from Malaysia Airlines. Our system came back with a note that this is a stolen passport," he said. Police found the man at his home. The passport was stolen two years ago while he was travelling in Thailand, the spokesman said.

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) - At least two Yemeni soldiers and four militants were killed in a clash on Saturday when al Qaeda fighters tried to attack a military compound in southern Yemen, the Defence Ministry said. The clash occurred when al Qaeda militants approached the compound in Lawdar town with suicide belts, hand grenades and explosive devices, the ministry said on its website. Soldiers and members of neighborhood patrols confronted them. The website earlier put the toll at one dead militant and two Yemeni soldiers.